Hey punk, you feeling lucky????

Here’s the deal, we have a video here about our Leap (Don’t Look) Day challenge that explains it all, but for you muttonheads that need an extra definition, here’s how it goes.

We’re sick and tired of the whole world ignoring Leap Year… treating it like the ugly cousin that the rest of the family is ashamed of….so we at Metacafe want to make something out of it.

LeapYear '08

How? You ask? Well, submit your crazy video creations for the official Metacafe Leap (Don’t Look) Day and we’ll feature them on Metacafe on February 29.

Are you creative, or what?

Make sure you tag your videos “LeapYear08� so we know it’s for our Leap (Don’t Look) Day extravaganza.

So check out my video, and tell your friends about this. You do have friends, don’t you?

Yours truly

Metacafe King

To all those producers affected by yesterday’s changes to the Producer Rewards® program, first let us say that we appreciate all your concerns and are more than willing to address them. If you have questions or specific issues, you are welcome to contact our Customer Support team through the Contact Us form in the Help Center or go on the Metacafe Forums.

Regarding your concerns over the removal of videos from Metacafe, please understand that this was necessary for the continued success of the program. If we could have merely removed the videos from the program without also removing them from the site, we would have. Unfortunately, though, removing videos from Producer Rewards® means stopping the view count, and the only way to do that and compensate producers correctly is through removal. Besides, it would not be fair for us to stop paying for video views but still receive the benefit of those views.

If your video was removed and you want it re-published on the site (outside of the Producer Rewards® program), please e-mail customersupport@metacafe.com and agree to the following statement:

I give my consent to Metacafe to republish my video(s) on the Metacafe website, outside of the Producer Rewards® program. I am aware that said video(s) will no longer be eligible for payment for any views accumulated.

Assuming your video meets our general content standards, we will re-publish it immediately – with the views and VideoRank™ as they were prior to removal. Re-publishing also preserves all embedded versions of your videos, so don’t worry about the hours you spent marketing your work.

It is our sincere hope that you will remain part of the Metacafe community and continue submitting outstanding original works to the Producer Rewards® program.

Thank you, and best of luck on all future productions!

We are making some important changes to the Metacafe Producer Rewards® program. These changes, effective immediately, are designed to meet two objectives:
1. Help us develop short-form video as an entertainment genre by showcasing a broad spectrum of content that is entertaining to a large and diverse audience; and
2. Address concerns from viewers and advertisers about content that is inappropriate or uninteresting.

The basic structure of the program remains intact: Any creator of an original video that meets the program requirements may submit his or her video for consideration. We pay $5 per 1,000 views – you receive your first payment of $100 after your video crosses the 20,000 views mark and has been accepted into the program.

What we’re updating are the criteria for acceptance into the program. A complete description of the Producer Rewards® program and its requirements is available here. We encourage all creators to review this detail before submitting a video to Producer Rewards®.

The most significant changes to the program are as follows:

• Going forward, we will not accept the following types of videos into the Producer Rewards® program on the basis that they are inappropriate or uninteresting:
­ – Videos that have sexual arousal as their primary purpose
­ – Videos that are primarily promotional vehicles for a product or service
­ – Videos that merely feature a person who is not doing anything entertaining or exceptional

• Note: Videos previously accepted into Producer Rewards® that fall into the categories described above have been removed from the program and the site. Affected creators will be paid for views that occurred before February 11, 2008. And they may re-publish their video on Metacafe, though it is ineligible for future payments.

• Going forward, videos that instruct viewers how to do something unsavory or potentially harmful to others – such as make a bomb or gun – will not be published on the Metacafe web site, as these do not meet our general content standards. Any such videos that may have previously been accepted into Producer Rewards ® have been removed from the program and the site and are not eligible for re-publication on Metacafe.

• Additionally, in the interest of delivering an exceptional entertainment experience well-suited to a large and diverse audience, we will be actively encouraging video creators to stretch their creative muscles and discouraging people from submitting “copycat� videos.
- Specifically, we will not accept videos into the Producer Rewards® program that are substantially similar to another video already in the program.
- ­ We are also adding a “trends exhausted� page to the web site that will specify video themes that we are choosing to retire from the Producer Rewards® program on the basis that we have enough of a particular type of content and are receiving community complaints indicating viewer fatigue. This list will be updated regularly, and we encourage video creators to check it before producing their work or submitting it to the Producer Rewards® program. The current list of exhausted trends is available here.

• Note: Creators who submitted their work to the Producer Rewards® program prior to the public communication on our web site of an exhausted trend will not be impacted. But any submissions received after a theme is posted to the “trends exhaustedâ€? page will be automatically rejected from the program.

After a year of running the program, we’ve learned a lot to help us better bring the creative spirit of Producer Rewards® to life and ensure that the program supports our goals of delivering an exceptional entertainment experience to our 30 million unique monthly viewers worldwide and building Metacafe into a global media company focused on short-form video entertainment powered and programmed by the audience.

Our intent is to maintain clear and transparent acceptance criteria so that video creators know what content is most likely to succeed. We are committed to making decisions that are consistent, fair and serve the shared best interests of our producers, viewers and advertisers. You’ll also notice in the full description of the program that we do reserve the right to make exceptions for exceptional videos.

We operate in a dynamic environment, and it is likely that we will introduce additional changes to the Producer Rewards® program in the future, which we will communicate as clearly and quickly as possible.